I love that the locals get it and hospital administration doesn’t!Protesters Demand to be Heard about the Closing of the Rapid City Hospital LibraryHospital Librarian Replaced by Electronic Library After 24 Years
Closing a hospital library is a special kind of stupid.
What kind of [insert polite word for moron or idiot here] closes a hospital library and replaces it with electronic resources alone?
Find me a hospital where all staff know how to search and use MESH. Find me a staff where their time is better spent researching rather than in patient care and interaction. With several indepth research studies showing that hospital librarians reduce patient mortality by up to 4% and change the diagnosis or clinical procedure up to 50% of the time, to the better, why would anyone close the hospital library?
This must have been done by an uninformed hospital adminsitrator or one who just doesn’t care about patient care more than bucks. I hope I never have to depend on the services of Rapid City Regional Hospital!
Snark warning ahead:
What do we need medical professionals for anyway? I can look things up on the web. If my practice depends on excellent information, I guess the e-library is good enough. It’s only life and death some of the time! (Sarcasm intended)
Why would you need information professionals in an information dependent environment? I wonder how many patients have to die at River City Regional Hospital before the lawsuit settlements outweigh the cost of the library. Less than one I bet!
I wonder where Dr. Robert Allen, RCRH’s vice president of medical affairs, will be then.
Stephen

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About The Author

Stephen Abram is a librarian and principal with Lighthouse Consulting Inc., and executive director of the Federation of Ontario Public Libraries. He blogs on library strategies for direction, marketing, technology and user alignment.